A new question has emerged about the proposed Potomac Yard Metro station: Should it sit on the ground, like the station at Morgan Boulevard, or hang in the air, like those under construction in Tysons Corner?

Three potential locations for the Potomac Yard infill station are under consideration as finalists as part of the 2-year-old Environmental Impact Statement process. Two, Alternatives A and B, would be at-grade and east of the CSX tracks. A third finalist, Alternative D, would be aerial, west of the CSX tracks and offer direct access to CPYR Inc.’s Target-anchored Potomac Yard Center.

Alternative D is far more complicated from an engineering standpoint. It would require the construction of more than a mile of new track. It would eat into CPYR’s property. It would likely push the cost well above the $240 million original estimate. It is unpopular with the area’s major developers. And it may spark legal action, as the construction site would breach the George Washington Parkway, which some Alexandria residents deem sacred.

But it is still on the table.

“As I understand it, all of the viable locations should be analyzed, and this is viable, meaning it’s technically feasible, even if the cost is astronomical, even if the aesthetic impacts are nondesirable,” said Fred Rothmeijer, founding principal with MRP Realty, which is developing the 1.7 million-square-foot Potomac Yard Town Center just south of the existing Target with The JBG Cos. “It’s basically doing what they did in Tysons, with elevated rail. You can see it’s not really that desirable, and it starts biting into developable land, but as I understand they have to go through each one of these.”

Alternative A would sit on the existing Metro tracks, east of the CSX tracks, at the north end of the Potomac Greens neighborhood. It would require two new pedestrian bridges but no new track construction. The station would be at ground level.

Alternative B would sit just to the north of Potomac Greens, but still east of the CSX tracks. It, too, would be at-grade and require the construction of two new pedestrian bridges, in addition to roughly 2,000 feet of new Metro track.

Alternative D, meanwhile, shifts the platform and station facilities north and west into Potomac Yard Center, home to Target, Best Buy and other big-box stores. The station would be above ground, very much like the new Tysons Corners stations, and the construction staging complex — with two access points coming off the George Washington Parkway. That location would require 6,000 new feet of track construction and two new Metrorail bridges while the other options require none.

“You will reap a hurricane if there’s a breach of the parkway, even if temporarily,” said one Alexandria resident during a recent EIS public meeting.

The inclusion of Alternative D has added $1.5 million to the cost of the $4.3 million EIS. The City Council on April 24 agreed to draw the additional funds from Potomac Yard special tax district revenue, paid by the area’s commercial property owners.

Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille declined to state a location preference, saying it’s too early in the EIS process and “all of the options are on the table for consideration.”

“Where I stand is we definitely need a Metro station, and it needs to be in a location that has the minimal amount of impacts to the neighborhood and quality of life,” Euille said.

Alexandria staff describe Alternative D as “technically viable from an engineering standpoint.” Its complicated engineering, they wrote in a report to the council, “is one of the reasons that the estimated EIS study costs have substantially increased.”

In late 2010, Alexandria up-zoned the 69-acre Potomac Yard Center from the existing 650,000 square feet to 7.5 million square feet, to include 930,000 square feet of retail, 2.5 million square feet of office space, 3,659 residential units and 170 hotel rooms. Metro is central to that plan, said Ed Woodbury, president of Chicago-based McCaffery Interests Inc., CPYR’s development consultant.

McCaffery prefers Alternative B, Woodbury said, because it is close to Potomac Yard Center but doesn’t consume any developable acreage. Alternative D, he said, will block views, require two track crossovers and fall on private land.

“All of our arrangements and upzoning really are contingent on it being in Alternative B,” Woodbury said.

As for construction of the center itself, planning goes on but moving dirt will be difficult until the Metro location is finalized. A final decision isn’t expected until early 2014.

“There’s so much that’s driven by the Metro, it really influences our planning process,” Woodbury said. “We’re not waiting for that, but we have to wait until it settles before diving in.”

MRP’s planned town center, immediately south of Potomac Yard Center, would best be served by Alternative B, Rothmeijer said. The developer has not taken a formal position on a preferred station location, he said, but Alternative B is less complicated and expensive than Alternative D, and it affects Potomac Greens less than Alternative A. The middle option does sit in wetlands, he said, but they’re “very bad wetlands.”

Construction of a 323-unit multifamily building, part of the town center, is expected to kick off in the third quarter of this year.

“I can’t see anybody really thinking that would be the winner of this thing or the logical end of it,” Rothmeijer said of Alternative D, “but they have to run these things down.”

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